and perhaps most vexing, ideas and innovation squeezes between the changes that executives know are needed at their companies....

...and their creative and execution capacity to get them done.

Is your business experiencing one or several of these squeezes?

And if so, do they feel even more frustrating because of all of the growth you see in businesses all around you?

My friend and famed marketing consultant Paul Lemberg talks about four things working together that can transform those tight feelings of being squeezed into elated ones of business progress and success.

He talks about the “Win-Win” duality - that we can charge a profitable price for our products and services and have it be one that our clients and customers feel good about it.

How do we arrive at these right prices?

That word again, innovation.

Odds are high that the prices we charge now are sub-optimal, so it is just a matter of analysis to determine what that optimal pricing should be and then courage to make and stick to these new (usually higher!) prices.

4) Consistent marketing that creates new business at an acceptable cost.

In spite of the constant churn of modern markets, we must have faith that as we increase the value we offer to our customers, and then sell that value at the right price and focused on the right benefits...

...that these changes we make will last and work for a long time.

And 4.3% economic growth makes everything easier.

So what are you waiting for?

Need Feeling Squeezed and want help getting your business movingClick hereto schedule a complimentary consultation with one of our Innovation and Growth Experts.

This amounts to more than 89,000 retail workers being laid off since October, with sadly many more to come.

The root cause is obvious - the unassailable competitive pressures brought on by the cost, convenience, and customization advantages of e-commerce that builds every passing year (more than $40 billion / year in online cannibalization of retails sales every year since 2013) and now probably has reached the point of no return.

Now let's put aside the cultural implications of a world of hollowed out shopping malls, boarded up down towns, job dislocation and the poignant shift from an in-person commerce model in place since the start of recorded history to us all sitting alone in our underwear and just pressing “click."

Let's put it aside because as business people our jobs are not to engage in wistful sentimentalities, but rather to address economic conditions and technological realities as they are and will be and not as perhaps we would like them to be...

...and plan and act accordingly.

And so the next time we walk by a shuttered store front - especially one of a retailer where perhaps in our youth was a particularly special place (for me it was Radio Shack) it is ok to be sad for a moment but then we must transition quickly to the passionate and even angry feeling that "This will not happen to me and my business!"

Instead, we will learn from the causes of the fall of traditional retail and not do those things. As in:

Not get into a position where legacy, high cost structures make it impossible to realistically compete with leaner, more efficient rivals. And if we are in a high cost position now, we will unwind those costs immediately because if we don't do it for ourselves, our customers flocking to lower cost providers will very painfully do it for us.

Not think our brands and reputations, no matter how old and sturdy they might be, will save us. Yes, it can be helpful in a trust challenged Internet world to have a known brand and sturdy reputation, but the former can quickly turn to a stodgy liability and the latter can fall apart in an instant (see Airlines, United).

And just not think that the particular business model we have now is going to last forever because it won't.

So if the writing on the business wall is such that your particular way of doing things is firmly in the cross hairs of the modern technological onslaught, then sometimes the most honorable and profitable (or loss mitigating) thing to do is to accept your business model as it stands now is truly doomed...

...and either radically change it or shut it down and do something else.

Now, the good news is that in the long run it is far easier to win at something that is aligned with modern progress than to fight to keep alive for “just another day” a flawed and anachronistic business model.

So no matter how stuck or old or frustrated we might be, we just gotta believe that a new and better business thing is right around the corner and is ours for the taking...

...because this is the only right kind of sentimentality for our technological age.

Earlier this week Tesla became America's most valuable car maker, with a market capitalization at Monday’s close of $50.9 billion, surpassing that of General Motors for the first time.

Last year, Tesla sold 72,285 cars, with revenues totaling $7 billion, and in so doing accrued $674 million in losses.

In that same time General Motors sold 10 million cars, with revenues totaling $166 billion and in so doing made $9.4 billion in profits.

So many found it interesting that sophisticated investors and market observers decided that Tesla was a more valuable company than GM.

But few found it surprising. Here’s why:

Tesla is led by Elon Musk, one of the most iconic and admired entrepreneurs of the past 50 years. A business leader who has driven fundamental change in two of humankind’s most fundamental technologies - ground and air (through his other company SpaceX) transport.

General Motors is led by Mary Barra, a 37 year veteran insider of GM’s notoriously ponderous bureaucracy.

Tesla's brand, even after just a few short years in business, ranks alongside Porsche, Mercedes, and BMW as one of the most valuable in the world, and its Model S was famously rated as “the best car Consumer Reports had ever tested,” with a perfect 100 score.

And yes Tesla is young (founded 2003) and General Motors is old (founded 1908).

While GM’s age offers some advantages - consumer trust and loyalty, institutional knowledge, assets acquired long ago at low cost basis - these advantages are outweighed by the burdens of age - legacy cost structures, cumbersome decision making, and the challenge of attracting and retaining change and innovation-focused talent to an older organization.

Contrastingly, Tesla’s youth, on balance, is a great advantage.

What it may lack in organizational maturity and depth of industry talent, it more than makes up for in the "Tabula Rasa" benefits of being organizationally new - simplicity and the ability to more easily put into use the best and newest "business things" - technologies, work processes, culture, etc.

What all this adds up to is in spite of General Motors by any traditional measure being a far weightier company than Tesla, investors believe that as the years roll on Tesla will be the more impactful one and the one with the far brighter future.

The future.

In all of the most meaningful and important ways, it is these future prospects that most fundamentally drive business value.

Let us learn from this “Tesla versus GM” comparison and do everything we can to ensure our company’s strategies and tactics are focused more on what might and will happen in our industries and markets as technologies and buyer preferences evolve and far less in what has had and is happening.

Here is an easy shorthand to do so - just ask yourself “What would Tesla do?”

And perhaps even “What would General Motors do?"

The answers that come back will be surprisingly accurate as to what the future forward business decision should and should not be.

Ask and answer this question correctly enough times, and before you know it your company too might be valued as Tesla is...

Last week, the National Association of Manufacturers released its Manufacturer’s’ Outlook Survey, showing 93 percent of manufacturers feel positive about their economic outlook. This is the highest in the survey’s 20-year history, up from 56.6 percent one year ago and 77.8 percent in December.

A report released by the Pew Research Center on Tuesday showed that 58 percent of Americans say that the current economic situation in the country is either “very good or somewhat good,” up from 44% a year ago, the largest one year improvement in the survey’s history, and the most positive assessment of economic conditions since 2007.

Gallup’s US Economic Confidence Index, which measures whether Americans feel the economy is improving or getting worse, has remained positive for 20 straight weeks, the longest positive streak since Gallup began tracking the measure in 2008.

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Survey increased sharply in March to its highest level since December 2000, with “Consumers expressing much greater optimism regarding the short-term outlook for business, jobs and personal income prospects.”

I'm less interested in the reasons why (political and otherwise) these numbers are so rosy as I am as to how businesses of all types of sizes can benefit because of them.

On this April 5th, here are three of my favorites:

#3. Be a Bearer of Good News. At some point, in large swaths of American Society it stopped being "cool" to outwardly express optimism and confidence in both the economy as a whole, and in one's own business in particular.

To heck with that!

Great business leaders are almost always great business cheerleaders.

A habit I love is to start every business conversation with both concrete statistics and heartfelt enthusiasm as to the unique and sustainable opportunities allowed by current economic conditions.

Tone setting like this is always beneficial, but is especially so now because of all of the political noise that too often spills into business conversation.

The sweet spot here is to pull the business positives from the present political landscape, tax and regulatory reform being at the top of the list, and to offer no opinion on anything else (which, in our role as business people is almost always ineffective to comment upon).

#2. Get Granular. Once our “there are windfalls to be had” point of view is out there, then our focus should turn to the “micro-specifics” of delivering to our customers higher quality at a lower cost so to actually earn these windfalls for ourselves.

For far too many businesses, the unfortunate answer is either "not really" or that maybe they once did but have become sadly outdated as technology and more innovative competitors have passed them by.

And then doing something about it.

As in tearing our products and services down to their studs and rebuilding them in line with updated technology and evolving customer needs and demands.

And then let’s use that same microscope on the business cost side - ruthlessly looking at all of our processes and personnel and finding the fat and waste and inefficiency and just cutting, cutting, cutting, and optimizing, optimizing, optimizing.

Attacking one of the two sides of the “higher quality / lower cost” business coin will yield good results.

Attacking them both, rapidly, in these great markets well...

...you just may need a wheelbarrow for all the money you'll be making. :)

#1. Run Free. When we combine the stance and mindsets of optimism and confidence with the hard, granular work of products, service and business process improvement...

...from this inspired and healthier base, we can let our entrepreneurial, creative, and innovative business minds and spirits run free.

Run free in how we market, how we sell, how we deliver.

In how we build and sustain a vibrant company culture and team.

And run free in the expanse of possibility and accomplishment we dream for ourselves and our businesses.

Not pollyanna dreams, but dreams grounded in the opportunities of today's markets, and dreams possible because we're willing and eager to do the hard, daily work of continuous, business improvement.

A great source of funding to start or grow your business is SBA loans.

SBA loans are issued by private banks. However, the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) guarantees a percentage of each loan. What this means is the following: if you, the entrepreneur or business owner, default on the loan (i.e., can't pay it back), the issuing bank only loses a small percentage of the money it lent you. The United States government essentially pays for the rest.

Because of this guarantee program, banks don't bear as much risk and are much more prone to issue SBA loans. This makes it easier for entrepreneurs like you to get these loans. Conversely, without the program, banks wouldn't make as many loans, and fewer businesses would get funding.

When small businesses grow, everybody wins. The entrepreneur can start or grow their business. In doing so, they create jobs. And their employees then have money to buy things. And the economy grows.

Small business funding challenges during the recession

But, as you may have noticed, business owners are still having trouble getting access to capital, namely 1) Small dollar loans, and 2) Loans in the niche industries affected by recession, such as real estate, finance, etc.

If you think about it, most small businesses don't need $1 million or even $500,000, and wouldn't even know what to do with it all. In many cases, even $100,000 can go a long, long way towards boosting revenues (or even doubling them) if invested in more lead generation campaigns, building a sales team, etc.

The odds are you can suffice with a smaller loan amount. In the past this has been more difficult because banks are geared towards extending larger loans since they can earn more interest for the same amount of due diligence per loan.

What the SBA is doing for small businesses

The SBA recently launched two loan-guarantee revisions that simplify and streamline paperwork even more for banks and borrowers.

One of them, the Small Loan Advantage program, is off to a strong start. It allows banks to make loans at more affordable rates, and brings more opportunities to borrow smaller loan amounts, like $50,000 to $100,000 or even less....which is great if that's all you need!

Applying for a small SBA loan from banks

To take advantage of this for yourself, find out which local bank makes the most SBA loans. You can often find this information on the bank's website. Or you can visit the branch or call them. Ask them how many SBA loans they make and how often they fund loans in the dollar range of what you need.

Find the local bank that is most active in the SBA loan program and apply for a loan. If the bank says you're not ready for the loan, don't hesitate to ask them why. Ideally, you can then fix the issue, and come back shortly thereafter and get the loan.

The SBA wants you to succeed as an entrepreneur and business owner. As mentioned, when you do, you will create jobs and stimulate the economy. So consider SBA loans as a funding source; they might be perfect for your business.

Suggested Resource: Want funding for your business? Then check out our Truth About Funding program to learn how you can access the 41 sources of funding available to entrepreneurs like you. Click here to learn more.

But let’s first look at the other side, those “chosen few” companies that opposed to being unfixable have the wind at their backs and oysters at their feet!

These businesses have the "good stuff" going on - growing revenues, healthy margins, next gen technology, cool brands, charismatic leadership - and their main stress is just to decide which of the plentiful, high potential opportunities to pursue.

For these businesses, there are investors and buyers everywhere that are excited to take big leaps of faith and offer them money to grow and / or sell.

With that happy aside, what are those folks at businesses that just feel “unfixable” to do?

Well, the cold truth is that they most likely need to either:

1. Try to sell themselves to a “strategic” buyer - someone to come in and either a) replace tired management with new blood and / or b) exploit “synergies” such as combining a business with strong marketing with one with great products / services or finding efficiencies through reducing redundancies, admin, etc.

2. Just accept that the business just can’t be sold nor fundamentally grown. And then like heck work to just suck as much money out of it as possible before its inevitable demise.

And oh, if there is just not enough money in that unfixable business to make it worth it to keep doing at all?

Well then let's shut it down, cry in our soup for perhaps even more than a little bit, and then move on to that next bigger and far better thing.

So if you are one of the chosen ones, or very much believe that you might be, then go for it full force.

And do so now when conditions are hot like this. Investors and buyers are wanting and waiting to take that chance and leap of faith!

And if you’re not, that is ok too.

Because yes in this 21st Century World of ours, there are a million ways to go.

One of those ways might be to sell the business, another to run it as absolutely best you can as profitably as you can.

It is just always very good to know what you are - and what you're not.

Since Election Day, the stock market has risen more than 15%, and business confidence has reached its highest level in 9 years.

This exuberance was on full display earlier this month with the Snap IPO, both the first big tech IPO of 2017 and one that performed above even its most optimistic expectations, with a market valuation at today’s market close north of $24 billion.

For a company with less than $500 million in revenues, and that last year lost $47 million.

Remarkable on one level, but when viewed through the wider lenses of the bullish outlook for the economy and the “it just goes on and on” low interest rate environment, not entirely surprising.

While frothy conditions like these have characterized past markets, the dynamics of this "Trump Rally" just feel different.

Let’s start with the dynamic of tone.

Quite simply, when the highest profile person in the world's economy - the U.S. president - is in so many ways a pure “promoter personality,” that this quality of “hype and sizzle” is only naturally more rewarded and expected.

For executives seeking to launch new products, raise capital, and / or to sell their companies at a high valuation, this does not mean just “blowing hot air” is an effective strategy but...

...it does mean that if ever there was a time where talking through the more “optimistic scenarios” as to our business forecasts is both okay and to be expected, then that time is certainly now.

The next dynamic is political.

With Republicans in control of most levers of the Federal Government, big policy changes affecting huge swaths of the U.S. economy are potentially coming - to health care, taxes, regulations, infrastructure, trade, immigration, and more.

Whatever your political opinions are of these changes, they are on the minds of business and investment decision-makers everywhere.

A third dynamic not entirely unique to this rally, but always characteristic of bull markets is the heightened value placed on speed and velocity.

In this context, a long time Silicon Valley venture capital colleague of mine shared with me his views on a low revenue, no profit but $2 billion+ valuation company in which his firm was invested.

He said he and his partners felt at least 25% of that valuation - or $500 million dollars - was driven solely by the charismatic and “velocity-focused” leadership of that company’s CEO and founder.

Yes, investors were willing pay a half billion dollar premium for a leader capable of driving fast business action and results.

These are both strange and uniquely encouraging times and markets.

The future remains uncertain, but for now the guidance is to bake speed, political awareness, and perhaps even more than a bit of hype into your business model and presentation... ...and watch both your business results and its value soar.

There are many mental and personal blockages that can hinder you from achieving your full potential in business. Blockages in business can be compared to fatty deposits around your arteries that impede blood pumped from the heart from reaching its destination.

For you to succeed in your business, you must identify and eliminate such blockages promptly.

Here are 10 common blockages that can impede your success. As you read through the list, mark any of them that might be affecting you and/or your business:1. Lack of Skill - As information increases, many business owners soon find out that there is much to learn. Whether it's getting up to date on new tax laws, learning about social media, or practicing negotiation techniques, take the time to keep your skills sharp.2. Bad or Negative Attitude - While it may be easy to learn new skills, attitude is what makes or breaks a company. Whether you think you can or think you can't - you're right! Check your attitude frequently. 3. Lack of Focus - I always tell people that if they do one thing, they can do an A+ job; but that the second they do something else, they can only do a B+ job on each. And the bottom line is that to succeed in business, you must do an A job or better. So, make sure you focus on specific projects so you can excel at them.4. Procrastination - Procrastination is high among the top five time wasters. Creating deadlines is an effective way of preventing procrastination. Though it may feel restrictive or even stressful, having a deadline can activate your brain and infuse new thoughts and ideas. 5. Monotony - It pays to try out something new once in a while. There is always a new instructional video with a different method from the text book methods learned in school. Doing something differently offers you the necessary relief from the routine and repetition that is common in many businesses.6. Control Issues - Sometimes the tiny voice in your head may urge you not to give up control, so you end up micromanaging everything. It is important to have faith in the people you hire. Hiring qualified people for your business helps you to focus on specific tasks and minimizes your chances of overworking yourself. 7. Overworking Yourself - Sometimes you may overwork yourself even without realizing it. When you get overworked, you become less productive. Take it easy, go on vacation if possible. Your decision-making abilities become compromised when you are tired. Stick to a schedule and get some rest. 8. Seeking Approval - In business, you may sometimes unconsciously or even consciously wait for someone to encourage you or give you permission to take a step. Acknowledge your own abilities and make decisions on what is best for business, not based on pride of emotional approval.9. Lack of Creativity - Keeping a journal can remedy a lack of creativity. Sometimes a new idea will pop up at a random time or place. Jotting down ideas and inspirations helps to unblock your mind. Apart from noting down random ideas for future reference, journals provide a useful way to track personal progress.

10. Thinking Small - With the current technological capabilities, it is easy to access success stories. Surround yourself with people who think big. Read books, blogs and watch motivational videos, etc. In business, if you aim low, you strike low. Aim high.

How many of these blockages did you circle? There is no right or wrong answer. Whether you picked one or twenty, you have work to do. Study the blockages you marked and start with the one you feel is impacting you the most.

Work on removing this blockage for 30 days. Then pick the next one that is having an impact on your business and start working on that one. As you stretch beyond your comfort zone and tear down barriers, your business will grow.